JERUSALEM – Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land,” the bestselling book about the author’s complicated love for the land of Israel, is being made into a documentary film for HBO.

Shavit and HBO topper Richard Plepler discussed the project on Monday in Jerusalem at Keshet Media’s third annual INTV conferenece, a two-day gathering of top global television execs in Israel’s capital city.

The project will be helmed by Dan Setton, and Keshet’s Avi Nir is serving as exec producer.

Shavit is a longtime columnist for the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, and regarded as one of the most respected journalists in Israel. In his book, which raised the hackles of right-wing Jewry but which the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman declared a “must-read,” he delves into his own family’s history in Israel, painting his ancestral legacy as a patina for the story of the Jewish state.

Plepler told the audience at INTV that as soon as he read the book, he wanted it for HBO.

“When I first approached Ari I told him that I’ve waited my whole adult life to find this book… it captured both the objective truth and the emotional truth, the psychological truth of how I love Israel and ponder its challenges, and wrestle with its obvious mistakes and foibles,” he said. “And I thought, my goodness, what a privilege, to capture the essential truths of this book and to make a film that could reach millions of people not only in Israel and the U.S., but all over the world.”

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